Home

Rudra Sil, University of Pennsylvania, rudysil@sas.upenn.edu

Any attempt to describe, measure and explain change and complexity requires methods and analytic frameworks that can also capture the sources of continuity and uniformity across time and space. The nature and extent of change in any given context cannot be fully appreciated without an understanding of the forces that produce continuity and limit change. Similarly, the scale and implications of complexity across time and space cannot be fully appreciated without an understanding of the standard effects of individual mechanisms in analytically simplified contexts.

The approaches and techniques that fall under the rubric of "qualitative methods" are particularly relevant to the examination of the different ways in which change and complexity are manifested and interconnected in different spatial and temporal contexts. Some approaches may be better suited than others for analyzing certain instances and modes of change in specific periods and locations, while others may be more useful for capturing the evolution of complexity over long time horizons, while still others might be better positioned to track the forces that limit the extent of change and complexity across time and space. It is also possible that multi-method research may be effectively deployed to simultaneously explore different dimensions of change and complexity, at least where there is coherence across the ontological and epistemological foundations for each of the methods employed. And, regardless of the method(s) used, eclectic approaches devised in response to specific problems can shed light on how multiple mechanisms and processes combine to produce diverse individual and collective responses to change and complexity across diverse categories of actors enmeshed in diverse material or ideational structures.

Accordingly, the Qualitative Methods section welcomes proposals for panels and papers that address the particular conceptual, methodological, analytical, and epistemological issues that arise as we seek to make sense of change, complexity, and the relationship between the two. Also of interest are proposals that seek to assess whether qualitative approaches are becoming progressively more effective over time in analyzing change and complexity. In addition to these thematic panels, the section will consider any proposal that addresses issues generally of interest to its members, including, but not limited to: problems of conceptualization and measurement; the relative strengths and trade-offs of within-case analysis, paired comparison, and small-N comparison; the utility of historical or interpretive approaches and the challenges of various kinds of field research; and the relationships between different logics of inquiry and alternative epistemological perspectives.